A mobile user equipment and thus the user thereof can be positioned by various different techniques. For example, substantially accurate geographical location information that associates with a user equipment can be obtained based on the known satellite based GPS (Global Positioning System). More accurate location information can be obtained through a differential GPS. Another possibility is to use a location service that associates with a cellular telecommunications system for the provision of the location information.
In the latter the cells or similar geographically limited radio access entities and associated controllers of the communication system can be utilised to produce at least a rough location information estimate concerning the current location of the mobile user equipment or station, as the cellular telecommunications system is aware of the cell or service area with which the user equipment currently associates. The cellular system may be provided with location measurement units that provide more accurate data concerning the location of a mobile user equipment within the service area of the cellular system. It is also possible to conclude geographical location when the mobile user equipment is located within the coverage area of a visited or “foreign” network. The visited network may be made capable of transmitting the location of the mobile user equipment back to the home network, e.g. to support location services or for the purposes of routing and charging.
The location data that is provided by means of the elements of the cellular system may be processed in a specific location service node that is implemented either within the cellular system or connected thereto. The location data may also be processed in the user equipment that is provided with appropriate processing capacity. The location service facility provided by the communication system may serve different clients via an appropriate interface. The location information may be used for various purposes, such as for location of a mobile telephone that has made an emergency call, for locating vehicles or given mobile subscribers and so on.
However, the inventors have found that while the clients may receive information concerning the location of a mobile user, the mobile user himself may wish to receive services that utilise information provided by the location services and thus there is a need for new type of services that are based on location information.